Read and write from/to registry in VBA

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I think the problem here was that the macro did not have permission to write to the registry.

More information in this page.
I could read the key’s value using the WScript object just fine:

Debug.Print CreateObject("WScript.Shell").RegRead("HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR\Start")

To write (it should work if you have permissions):

CreateObject("WScript.Shell").RegWrite "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR\Start", 4, "REG_DWORD"

How I got it to work (since my script does not seem to have the necessary permissions):

ShellExecute 0, "runas", "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe", "/k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR /f /v Start /t REG_DWORD /d 4", "C:\", 0

In this last example the user will be prompted to provide the necessary permission.

PS: HKLM is an abreviation for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. All other root key names have similar abreviations that can be consulted in the page mentioned at the top.

As a practical example I will post my usage of these expressions to enable/disable USB mass storage (when on disable, when off enable):

Sub DoUSB_Control()
    If CreateObject("WScript.Shell").RegRead("HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR\Start") = 3 Then
        ShellExecute 0, "runas", "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe", "/k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR /f /v Start /t REG_DWORD /d 4", "C:\", 0
    Else
        ShellExecute 0, "runas", "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe", "/k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR /f /v Start /t REG_DWORD /d 3", "C:\", 0
    End If
End Sub

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